Overview

Birth in the Age of AIDS is a vivid and poignant portrayal of the experiences of HIV-positive women in India during pregnancy, birth, and motherhood at the beginning of the 21st century. The government of India, together with global health organizations, established an important public health initiative to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. While this program, which targets poor women attending public maternity hospitals, has improved health outcomes for infants, it has resulted in sometimes devastatingly negative consequences for poor, young mothers because these women are being tested for HIV in far greater numbers than their male spouses and are often blamed for bringing this highly stigmatized disease into the family. Based on research conducted by the author in India, this book chronicles the experiences of women from the point of their decisions about whether to accept HIV testing, through their decisions about whether or not to continue with the birth if they test HIV-positive, their birthing experiences in hospitals, decisions and practices surrounding breast-feeding vs. bottle-feeding, and their hopes and fears for the future of their children.

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9780804784238

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Reviews

Birth in the Age of AIDs is an important and beautifully written ethnography of women dealing with HIV/AIDS in India. Van Hollen delves into the life stories and narratives of young HIV-positive mothers, illuminating the lived nature of the epidemic as well as the intricate workings of gender and family, sexuality, biomedicine, stigma, and poverty. This original and riveting book will make a major impact in medical anthropology, gender studies, South Asian studies, and understandings of HIV/AIDS in global context. --Sarah Lamb, Brandeis University

"""This path-breaking volume is the first to examine HIV within the contours of women's reproductive lives - both as pregnant wives and birthing mothers - in the low-caste communities of southern India. Van Hollen's compassionate, humanizing account sheds light on women's strength and resilience in the midst of a cruel epidemic."" - Marcia C. Inhorn, Yale University ""Birth in the Age of AIDS is a deeply sensitive and thoughtful account of global health interventions on the ground. The women in this stirring book not only fight AIDS, stigma, and economic insecurity but also craft possible futures, humanize policy debates, and make an unequivocal case for new practices of care."" - Joao Biehl, Princeton University ""Birth in the Age of AIDs is an important and beautifully written ethnography of women dealing with HIV/AIDS in India. Van Hollen delves into the life stories and narratives of young HIV-positive mothers, illuminating the lived nature of the epidemic as well as the intricate workings of gender and family, sexuality, biomedicine, stigma, and poverty. This original and riveting book will make a major impact in medical anthropology, gender studies, South Asian studies, and understandings of HIV/AIDS in global context."" - Sarah Lamb, Brandeis University ""Poor pregnant women targeted by HIV-prevention programs in Tamil Nadu understand their decisions about testing to signify empowerment, assert their superior maternity through the unlikely sacrifice of not breastfeeding, and mobilize power through HIV-support networks. Van Hollen's meticulous and fascinating study reveals how 'global' health practices create unexpected local effects."" - Claire Wendland, Departments of Anthropology and Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Wisconsin ""This book begins to fill an important gap in the literature on women living with HIV. Based on an extensive and rigorous process of ethnographic fieldwork it explores the pregnancy and childbearing experiences of a sample of Indian women from a variety of backgrounds. Treading carefully between the social constraints imposed on these women and their exercise of their own autonomy it provides a rich and textured account of what are too often invisible yet vital aspects of human life. It is clearly written and well referenced and will hopefully provide a model for similar studies in other parts of the world."" - Lesley Doyal, Emeritus Professor of Health and Social Care, University of Bristol"

Birth in the Age of AIDS is a deeply sensitive and thoughtful account of global health interventions on the ground. The women in this stirring book not only fight AIDS, stigma, and economic insecurity but also craft possible futures, humanize policy debates, and make an unequivocal case for new practices of care. --Joao Biehl, Princeton University

Author Information

Cecilia Van Hollen is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

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